I have an exit interview coming soon. They told me that it will be casual, at a restaurant of my choosing. They also want me to be honest and help them understand what they can do better to retain good talent like me.

I dont want to burn any bridges, i want to be polite but there are things that really annoyed me and i know they wont change them just because we have already talked about it and nothing was done. Here are some examples

1) All IT work from home hours need to be approved ahead of time. I had to justify why i put in 3 hours on a Saturday while migrating our exchange servers.

2) IT workers, while salaried need to punch the clock (including lunches --- if youre missing an 30 minutes at the end of the pay period, you get in trouble. If youre over your hours, its all good. And i was always over and became very bitter about it.

3) Crapy PTO. 5 days 1st year, 10 days 2nd year. 15 days after 5 years and 20 after 8 years.

3) Lack of budget for IT. We have to pry money out of the finance department.

4) Well, crapy pay too.

Is honesty really necessary when you already know that these people are not going to change? I have had many meetings about these issues and they had justifications for everything. So why bother now when i am leaving? I can be polite and leave on a positive note, other than look like i am whining. Thoughts?

Number 2 on your list should be reported to your state and Federal Depts of Labor, along with documentation showing this practice. As a matter of labor law salaried employees cannot be docked for working less than 40 hours a week.

Other than that, unless you're being paid for your time for this exit interview, decline. If they require it they must pay you for your time as it's considered work time.

Number 2 on your list should be reported to your state and Federal Depts of Labor, along with documentation showing this practice. As a matter of labor law salaried employees cannot be docked for working less than 40 hours a week.

Other than that, unless you're being paid for your time for this exit interview, decline. If they require it they must pay you for your time as it's considered work time.

They dont dock your pay, they take that time off from your PTO, which is a lot as you can see.

If you already told them those things, it shouldn't hurt to reference them for the reasons you are leaving. If you feel it is a waste of time, you can always decline the exit interview.

I already gave a reason of leaving as " I got a better offer with a company thats closer to my house". I didnt see the need to bash them and highlight their shortcomings. I just didnt seem right.

It's always good to be honest in a sincere fashion during the exit interview. The fact remains that if they didn't care and it wasn't a strict company policy, there wouldn't be an exit interview at all. I don't think you should sound like you are "whining" as much as you are stating the facts - and it's ok to end with something like, "and all of those concerns lead me to think about another opportunity that may fit my current situation better."

Number 2 on your list should be reported to your state and Federal Depts of Labor, along with documentation showing this practice. As a matter of labor law salaried employees cannot be docked for working less than 40 hours a week.

Other than that, unless you're being paid for your time for this exit interview, decline. If they require it they must pay you for your time as it's considered work time.

They dont dock your pay, they take that time off from your PTO, which is a lot as you can see.

I'm not sure that's legal either in this case. I'd send the documentation of this to practice to the State and Federal Depts of Labor. While it's legal to require exempt employees to clock in and out you cannot penalize them for shortfalls in their time cards.

Oh, in this case I think some bridge burning via governmental interaction would be worth doing.

Being honest and professional will not burn bridges. How I would phrase it is something like this, "I am going to be honest with you so that you can take my feedback and hopefully use it to improve. I don't expect any justifications for my feedback from your end, but simply for you to use it for your business. I understand the ways of budgeting and maintaining a company so that all stay employed." Then you can go through the items you listed off.

As you said, they may not improve. It most likely is because of budget reasons. I work for a great company that buys/acquires small software firms. We get rid of the crappy management and raise up employees who know their stuff. As I am a part of the IT Integration team for the company, I see it all the time. Small companies are mismanaged because most people look to the short term and making their own money and then just trying to coast to retirement. They care only about 51% of the time. (Hope you get my reference there...) When they are done making their lifestyle, they sell the company to move on.

The best thing you can do in any job/career is take what experiences you gain into the next position you hold. Good luck and God speed my friend!

IT is a hard thing for many non technical folks to try and manage, they don't get that a portion of our work needs to be done while others are not working. All you can do is suggest that they adopt more flexible hours for IT workers to acknowledge the requirement for off hours work. It won't help with the pre-apporval requirement, but might help with the clock in/clock out mentality.

All you can do is state (respectfully) that they should consider a more modern and flexible approach to their tech staff if they want them operating at their most efficient.

Items 1-3 all seem perfectly reasonable. It's the job of finance has to track hours and meet regulations regarding time on the job. The vacation time seems fine as well. We get 3 weeks at 5 years, but don't get 4 weeks until 10 years.

You're correct that being bitter in an exit interview never benefits anyone. In your situation, I'd just skip it.

Number 2 on your list should be reported to your state and Federal Depts of Labor, along with documentation showing this practice. As a matter of labor law salaried employees cannot be docked for working less than 40 hours a week.

Other than that, unless you're being paid for your time for this exit interview, decline. If they require it they must pay you for your time as it's considered work time.

They dont dock your pay, they take that time off from your PTO, which is a lot as you can see.

I'm not sure that's legal either in this case. I'd send the documentation of this to practice to the State and Federal Depts of Labor. While it's legal to require exempt employees to clock in and out you cannot penalize them for shortfalls in their time cards.

Oh, in this case I think some bridge burning via governmental interaction would be worth doing.

I can agree with Mike here on reporting it to the Dept of Labor as I would think it is against the law to revoke time promised. However, think about this for a moment... A lot of blue collar jobs may not even offer PTO as there is no REAL mandate by any government that forces an employer for that PTO. It is suggested but has loopholes. The only major one that an employer MUST adhere to is FMLA for times like bereavement or birth of child. Vacation time may have some "minimal" requirements by government, but that is what they will adhere to.

Like I said in my above post, I see companies like this all the time. They get their just desserts in the end when the owner/stock holders sell the company.

whats wrong with being honest? no one wants to be honest anymore for fear of many things, one of which you mention. either man up and be honest in the exit interview or don't go. don't complain if you are not going to say anything about it.

why would I want a reference from a company that treats me like they treated him?

DustinB3403 wrote:

Jimmy @ Saunders Inc. wrote:

hahaha...I love this.

you don't want to burn bridges, but they have burnt you. odd.

lay it out. put it out there for them to do with as they wish. after you are gone, its not your problem.

I wish more people would be honest in exit interviews. but then again, no one in mgmt. cares or changes things, but at least you can say you said your bit.

I hope you don't need a reference from anyone at the business you're leaving then . .

Items 1-3 all seem perfectly reasonable. It's the job of finance has to track hours and meet regulations regarding time on the job. The vacation time seems fine as well. We get 3 weeks at 5 years, but don't get 4 weeks until 10 years.

You're correct that being bitter in an exit interview never benefits anyone. In your situation, I'd just skip it.

#2 is only reasonable if you also get credit for overtime work. It sounds to me like OP only gets penalized and doesn't get credited - this is a violation of the FLSA, even for exempt employees.

lay it out. put it out there for them to do with as they wish. after you are gone, its not your problem.

I wish more people would be honest in exit interviews. but then again, no one in mgmt. cares or changes things, but at least you can say you said your bit.

I hope you don't need a reference from anyone at the business you're leaving then . .

Always somebody who wants to "stick it to the man"... If that's what makes him sleep better at night, then good on him.

One thing that was said above that I do like in this conversation is not going to this lunch without being paid for it! Make them pay for lunch and take them to an expensive restaurant. Order $25 hamburger and enjoy it too. As long as they are picking up the tab...

Also, if any of you are tire of working for a company that is not flexible, and doesn't care about the employees, PM me and I will point you to my company's website. We are always hiring for many positions that you might find appealing. I am on the Corporate IT team and we all work remote! In this day and age, you can do more work remotely from home than ever before. KVM switches that connect to the network allow you to remotely manage servers. VPN technology allows you to service them too. iDRAC on Dell and iLO on HP enable access too. Literally I go into the office maybe once in 3-6 months if needed...

somethings will never change just because you told them so. realization comes after an important person leave and make their absence present. That's the time change will come in the workplace.

on my last exit interview.. i just told them reasons i don't mean.. in a professional way. (not being sarcastic) but just want to make that interview finished as soon as possible.

after a month or two.. I created an email address and sent an email containing the things i hate about the company without them knowing it was me..

that was the time.. top management (CEO, treasurer, GM (family business) replied to my email and told me that my thoughts are valuable to them and will made sure to change things inside the 4 corners of their office..

and guess what.. i heard a news from my ex coworker that they announced salary adjustments, HMO, and other benefits..

Personally I would pre-craft what I had to say and stick to that script/list. Have it in writing as well for them, and if they have questions about what you have written down then you can try to answer them tactfully while being truthful.

What you have to say could change the company culture and improve things for the next person. I try to leave things better than I found them. That may mean during an exit interview going over the finer points of why I am leaving.

1) All IT work from home hours need to be approved ahead of time. I had to justify why i put in 3 hours on a Saturday while migrating our exchange servers.

As a salaried employee why would I have to have prior approval before hand to do a job that NEEDS to be done during OFF hours? Who is doing the approving? A technical or non technical person, the answer makes a major difference to the work flow.

2) IT workers, while salaried need to punch the clock (including lunches --- if youre missing an 30 minutes at the end of the pay period, you get in trouble. If youre over your hours, its all good. And i was always over and became very bitter about it.

See #1, I would explain that this is demoralizing to know that I may have put in a 68 hr week last week/pay period and because the next week was below 40hrs I am penalized. It demotivates you to want to work more than 40-42 hrs/week. This ultimately could hurt the company because patches and maintenance that needs to be done is not getting done. A shift in policy to monitoring and having $manager or $hr follow up on chronic sub 40hr work weeks would be one possible solution. If you can get the job done in 35 hours and the business is happy that week that should be a "bonus" for you in getting 5 hours. Because there are weeks you have to put in 55hrs to get the job done, it is about feeling valued and appreciated, because when you work more than 40 hours you get the same check as when you work 40hrs.

3) Crapy PTO. 5 days 1st year, 10 days 2nd year. 15 days after 5 years and 20 after 8 years.

This is not to bad, 1 week your first year, 2 weeks your second year. Unless they roll PTO and sick time into the same bank then yeah that is pretty crappy. Most places provide you 1 sick day per month with the standard 5 days of vacation your first year and so on. Does it roll over/carry or is it use it or lose it? When you get into benefits there is a turn of murky waters and things to be looked at.

3) Lack of budget for IT. We have to pry money out of the finance department.

Encourage them to establish a baseline IT budget with a planned growth of 5% per year to accommodate for changing technology and salary needs.

4) Well, crapy pay too.

It is about value and company priority, if they want to keep good talent they will have to pay well enough and have a company culture that makes people want to stay. People don't often leave for money they leave bosses. When they do leave for money it is because $currentjob does not pays the bills and lets them put some aside for fun/vacation/meeting financial goals.

If current job does pay all your bills and you can meet your financial goals another ~5-10k usually is not the main motivator for the leave. It could be career growth, or different bosses, company culture etc.

I had an exit interview and it changed the CEOs life. To be brutally honest, the word "dick" referred to his good points. He just wasn't a nice guy.

I told him like it was. I told him the reason he couldn't hang onto people was the way he treated them. These are people, not furniture, and you don't yell at them or berate them. He's the same CEO the first time he tried it with me, I reminded him that I was perfectly capable of giving him a one way ticket to hell.

I told him I didn't know and care why he did that, it's just you don't treat your people that way. I told them it wasn't him that was going to make his company great, it was the people who worked for him. And if he couldn't understand they were his biggest asset, then he might as well just close the doors.

And I also told him some of the private things I'd found in my network scans. I knew all about his surfing habits and if he wanted to know why his marriage was in trouble, that might be a nice place to start.

It was an eye opener to him, he went into therapy a couple of days later. Dealt with his porn addiction and his anger management issues. Two years later, he called out of the blue, invited me to lunch, and thanked me for my honesty. He'd become the boss people liked, his wife and kids loved him again, and the retention rate at the company had increased dramatically.

Last time i worked for a company which used a clock in and out system was when i was stacking shelves at a supermarket as a teen. Since then, ive NEVER seen this in a business\office environment. Sounds a little toxic IMO.

Items 1-3 all seem perfectly reasonable. It's the job of finance has to track hours and meet regulations regarding time on the job. The vacation time seems fine as well. We get 3 weeks at 5 years, but don't get 4 weeks until 10 years.

You're correct that being bitter in an exit interview never benefits anyone. In your situation, I'd just skip it.

#2 is only reasonable if you also get credit for overtime work. It sounds to me like OP only gets penalized and doesn't get credited - this is a violation of the FLSA, even for exempt employees.

somethings will never change just because you told them so. realization comes after an important person leave and make their absence present. That's the time change will come in the workplace.

on my last exit interview.. i just told them reasons i don't mean.. in a professional way. (not being sarcastic) but just want to make that interview finished as soon as possible.

after a month or two.. I created an email address and sent an email containing the things i hate about the company without them knowing it was me..

that was the time.. top management (CEO, treasurer, GM (family business) replied to my email and told me that my thoughts are valuable to them and will made sure to change things inside the 4 corners of their office..

and guess what.. i heard a news from my ex coworker that they announced salary adjustments, HMO, and other benefits..

Good for them :)

so why couldn't you tell them in person? hiding behind emails, and pseudo names is childs play.